Venice Biennale 2023 puts Africa at the center of exhibitions

The traditional Venice Architecture Biennale , one of the most important architecture and design events in the world, kicks off this Saturday with the theme " Laboratory of the Future ". Until November 26, it will be possible to see the exhibitions of the 89 participants from all over the world in the spaces of the Giardini , the Arsenale and the Forte Marghera, which will place Africa at the center of the productions. This year, Nigerian artist, designer and architect Demas Nwoko was announced as the winner of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale. Check out all the details of the event below!

Theme of the Venice Biennale

For the first time, the Venice Architecture Biennale is shining a spotlight on Africa and the African diaspora . With the motto “it is impossible to build a better world if we do not first imagine it,” the exhibition does not aim to portray a single story, but to tell “several stories that reflect the dazzling and unnerving kaleidoscope of ideas, contexts, aspirations, and meanings that respond to the questions of their time,” explains Lesley Lokko , a Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic, and novelist who curated the event this year. “ Africa is the laboratory of the future ,” Lokko said during the Venice Biennale press conference in May 2022. “We are the continent with the youngest population in the world, the fastest urbanizing, growing at a rate of 4% per year, often at the expense of local ecosystems – so we are also at the forefront of climate change . The exhibition will focus on Africa, but it will not only be about Africa – the continent will be used as a place to understand everything that is happening around the world. After all, the Biennale itself is a workshop for the future.”

Exhibitors

The Venice Biennale will be divided into six parts. These will include 89 participants, of which more than half are from Africa or the African Diaspora . In addition, more than 70% of the participants are freelancers or teams of five people or less.

The 2023 edition of the Biennale will feature 63 countries located in the Giardini, the Arsenale and the historic center of the city of Venice. In addition, the exhibition will welcome Niger for the first time, along with Panama , which will have their own pavilions. The full list of participants can be found on the website .

Brazil at the Venice Biennale

Based on a reflection on Brazil's past, present and future, the exhibition places land at the center of the debate , both as a poetic and as a concrete element in the exhibition space. To this end, the entire pavilion will be filled with earth , placing the public in direct contact with the tradition of indigenous, quilombola and sertanejo dwellings, as well as Candomblé temples. The curatorship is by Gabriela de Matos , from the CASACOR São Paulo 2021 cast, and Paulo Tavares . “Our curatorial proposal starts by thinking about Brazil as land. Land as soil, fertilizer, ground and territory. But also land in its global and cosmic sense, as a planet and common home for all life, human and non-human. Land as memory, and also as future , looking at the past and heritage to expand the field of architecture in the face of the most pressing contemporary urban, territorial and environmental issues”, say the curators. Learn more about the project here .

Sustainability

One of the main goals of the Venice Biennale this year is to combat climate change by promoting a more sustainable model for the design, exhibition and operations of all its events throughout the city. In 2022, La Biennale obtained the carbon neutrality certificate from RINA.